§1.1 Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns advertising in general, especially advertising on offline properties, such as in print publications for example. In particular, the present invention concerns improving how user-advertisement actions are facilitated and tracked.
§1.2 Background Information
Online advertising has become very popular. One advantage of online advertising is that ads can be better targeted to a perceived user need (e.g., as evidenced by a search query, as evidenced by the content of a Web page being viewed, etc.). In addition to the ability to better target online ads, online ads are also advantageous in that the efficacy of online ads can be tracked using various automated means. For example, if an online ad is selected, such a selection can be tracked. Performance metrics such as selection rate (e.g., the ratio of the number of times an ad is selected to the number of impressions of the ad), conversion rate (e.g., the ratio of the number of times some user action, such as a purchase, a telephone call, etc., occurs with respect to an ad to the number of impressions of the ad) may be tracked.
The efficacy of offline ads and promotions can also be tracked, albeit using more cumbersome, less automated, means. For example, a coupon or ad may include a special telephone number or code which might allow the advertiser to know how the customer received the ad or promotion. For example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/240,793 (referred to as “the '793 application” and incorporated herein by reference), titled “ENTERING ADVERTISEMENT CREATIVES AND BUYING AD SPACE IN OFFLINE PROPERTIES, SUCH AS PRINT PUBLICATIONS FOR EXAMPLE, ONLINE”, filed on Sep. 30, 2005 and listing Brian AXE, Steve MILLER, Gokul RAJARAM and Susan WOJCICKI as inventors, describes serving ads in print publications. The ads in the '793 application might include a special telephone number or code to track ad “call-throughs” and/or a special Internet address (URL) to track user responses, etc. FIG. 1 corresponds to FIG. 9 of the '793 application and shows an exemplary display screen 100 for allowing advertisers to enter ad information, such as ad components, in a manner consistent with the present invention. The screen 100 may include an ad preview section 190 for rendering the appearance of an ad, given advertiser inputs. The advertiser may input one or more of (1) an ad headline 110a (rendered as 110b in preview 190), (2) an image file 120a (rendered as 120b in preview 190), (3) descriptive text 130a (to be rendered in area 130b in preview 190), (4) a logo file 140a (to be rendered in area 140b in preview 190), (5) a display URL 150a (to be rendered in area 150b in preview 190), and (6) a telephone number 160a (to be rendered in area 160b in preview 190). The telephone number 160 and/or the URL (e.g., to a server controlled by, or for, the ad network) 170 may be used to generate sales leads, and/or to track user response. The advertiser may also enter an ad name in block 170. The ad information may be saved via save button 180.
While it is useful to provide advertisement audience members with different ways of interacting with and using the ad (e.g., to obtain more information via telephone, to obtain more information over the Internet, to interact with the advertiser via telephone (e.g., to place an order), to interact with the advertiser via the Internet, etc.), providing different contact or address information (e.g., telephone numbers, email addresses, Internet addresses, etc.) can tend to clutter an ad and adversely impact the message conveyed by the ad. The present inventors believe that providing both a telephone number and an Internet address, particularly in a print ad having a small footprint, tends to clutter an ad, such as ads described in the '793 application.
Thus, it would be useful to reduce distracting clutter in ads, while at the same time permitting various different ways for advertisement audience members to interact with and use ads.